It was suppose to bring the best drivers to race, fill the stands after years of dwindling attendance. The billed Kroger Super Weekend was anything but that.
While the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge brought a very nice size field of car, the main event on Friday saw only thirty-four entries for the Rolex Sports Car Series, eleven being for the Daytona Prototype class. The race also did not entice drivers to come be apart of the first sports car race at the Speedway or car owners to field an extra car or two. Chip Ganassi added a second car for Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya and Scott Dixon but that was it for one-offs. Sebastien Bourdais raced for Starworks Motorsport and Paul Tracy for Doran Racing. That's it. Sure Indy Lights drivers James Davison and Sebastian Saavedra were in a Corvette but they do not move the needle.
No big name sports car or IndyCar drivers showed up like they do for the 24 Hours of Daytona. No All-Star, once-in-a-life time driver line-up, none of it. And the Nationwide race was not any better. The usual Cup guys who run Nationwide Series races showed up. The Busch brothers, Keselowski, Logano and Hamlin were there but it didn't draw the likes of Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart or Mark Martin. The thrill of winning the first Nationwide race at the Speedway wasn't as great as some first thought.
Moving away from Indianapolis Raceway Park (currently known as Lucas Oil Raceway) not only took a great Saturday night short track race off the Nationwide schedule but killed a pretty good Friday night Truck race as well. In an effort by both NASCAR and the Speedway to help bring more people to the track, their "Super Weekend" was not able to do what they hoped it would. It only saturated the greatest race track in the world with a few more minor events.
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